Flexible high-resolution display systems for the next generation of radiology reading rooms

Abstract

A flexible, scalable, high-resolution display system is presented to support the next generation of radiology reading rooms or interventional radiology suites. The project aims to create an environment for radiologists that will simultaneously facilitate image interpretation, analysis, and understanding while lowering visual and cognitive stress. Displays currently in use present radiologists with technical challenges to exploring complex datasets that we seek to address. These include resolution and brightness, display and ambient lighting differences, and degrees of complexity in addition to side-by-side comparison of time-variant and 2D/3D images. We address these issues through a scalable projector-based system that uses our custom-designed geometrical and photometrical calibration process to create a seamless, bright, high-resolution display environment that can reduce the visual fatigue commonly experienced by radiologists. The system we have designed uses an array of casually aligned projectors to cooperatively increase overall resolution and brightness. Images from a set of projectors in their narrowest zoom are combined at a shared projection surface, thus increasing the global pixels per inch (PPI) of the display environment. Two primary challenges - geometric calibration and photometric calibration - remained to be resolved before our high-resolution display system could be used in a radiology reading room or procedure suite. In this paper we present a method that accomplishes those calibrations and creates a flexible high-resolution display environment that appears seamless, sharp, and uniform across different devices.